USGS Water Resources Requests for Proposals Announced
The Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) facilitates three Request for Proposals through the Water Resources Research Act Program Competitive Grants Program by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the National Institutes for Water Resources. The next Request for Proposals is expected to be released Spring 2024. See last year’s information below for more information.
Webinar recording: Q&A focusing on RFPs
The three programs for FY2023 were:
- National Competitive Grants Program (also known as 104g), focusing on improving and enhancing the nation’s water supply and availability as well as exploration of new ideas that address or expand understanding of water problems with research priorities including national-scale evaluation of water budgets and socioeconomics;
- Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Competitive Grants Program, focusing on better identifying and understanding aquatic invasive species interactions on water quality, water quantity and aquatic ecosystems to guide management decisions to help improve invasive species management with specific research priorities on the effects, characteristics and management of aquatic invasive species in the Mississippi River Basin; and
- Per-And Polyflouroalkyl (PFAS) Substances Competitive Grants Program, focusing on better understanding PFAS interactions on water resources and the effects it has on water quality and resultant exposure to humans, other organisms and ecosystems to guide management decisions improving water resources at the regional or national scale with research priorities including media-specific methods, atmospheric sources and processes oriented at the molecular level.
Proposals must address the research priorities for each program as listed in their respective RFPs (click the links in the bulleted section above for RFP PDFs). Any investigator at an institution of higher learning is eligible to apply. Projects will only be awarded if funds are appropriated to the USGS to support the program.
For each program, proposals may be for projects of 1 to 3 years in duration and require a 1:1 match. Maximum award amounts are $310,000 for 104g and $279,000 for AIS and PFAS.
Per the guidelines, all applications to any of these programs must be submitted through the Texas Water Resources Institute. We will require a letter of intent to be submitted prior to the submission deadline so we know how many applications to anticipate. The proposal submission deadline to TWRI is typically 2-3 weeks prior to USGS’ deadline so we can compile the information, route internally and upload to grants.gov to submit to USGS.
Only proposals submitted to TWRI will be transmitted to the National Grants Competition Proposal Peer Review Panel.
NOTE for TAMU (on-campus) and AgriLife PIs/Co-PIs: For those submitting proposals within Texas A&M University, considered “on-campus,” Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, do not route your proposal through Sponsored Research Services (SRS). You can work with your proposal administrator on budgeting appropriately in the SRS template, but all proposals submitted to TWRI must be routed (separately) with TWRI as the lead, the proposal PI will be listed as a Co-PI, and the proposal package will route accordingly for approvals through maestro prior to us submitting the packages to USGS.
EXTERNAL/SUBAWARDS to TAMU/AgriLife: If you will be a subaward to AgriLife Research, please work with your sponsored program office to ensure routing/approvals are obtained prior to submission to TWRI. In addition, we will need a completed, signed subaward commitment form from your organization along with your submission package unless your organization is part of the FDP, then provide the link to that information instead.
The Focus Categories are the same for each opportunity. Additional information about research priorities, proposal content, format and review process are available in the RFP.
Questions regarding these grant programs can be directed to Danielle Kalisek at Danielle.Kalisek@ag.tamu.edu.